118TSI - General Discussion

[cktsi]

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I'm torn on what to do.

2 years on, my MY11 118tsi is approaching 1 year left on warranty. Hasn't missed a beat so far except for small DSG niggles which the latest reflash has greatly improved. So my question is, how likely is it that my engine could give in after the warranty period? Would it be best to just take the financial loss and sell it now?

Am i just being paranoid? As I said, i haven't had any issues so far so it may well drive all the way into the 200K+ without a hitch. My initial thought is that after 2 years any potential engine problems would have probably arisen by now?

very wallet itchy right now considering the good deals on gti's atm

I share your pain. The car is awesome and i have been test driving a lot of cars recently. Even though these other cars are faster, in real world driving with traffic congestion nothing beats the low rpm torque of this car.

I ummed and aahhhhed at your stage and procrastinated so much that i held onto it for the 3rd year and beyond. It is now 3 years 4 months. I procrastinated and was torn because i loved the car so much, but been jaded by the treatment vw have been giving me. Also at the time there was no car that i wanted to trade up to.

one school of thought is if your local dealer has been good to you, sell up now while you havent lost too much in depreciation and get a GTI. If your local dealer has not been good to you in fixing any issues you had, i would go for something else other than VW.

another school of thought is enjoy the car for the life of its warranty and revisit this later. There are other cars out there that may be worthy replacements.

I personally decided to sell my car in 3 months time and have ordered a different brand of car because they could not fix the dsg to my satisfaction. Whilst the 2nd gear shudder is gone, i now feel a 1st gear shudder on initial takeup and the gear changes are slurry rather than crispy. I doubt Guy H's dsg tune would fix my issue.

If it wasnt for my dsg, i would have kept the car.

Also since they replaced my injector the car doesnt rev as smoothly as when new. It can get lumpy under high stresses.

So in summation i think if your car has no problems in year 3 it is probably a keeper. It is a terrific car. But if you have ongoing niggly issues that were never fully resolved, and were treated badly by vw, i would switch brands. If you were treated well by vw and things were resolved, then possibly consider staying in the stable. Either wait for the golf 7 or trade up to a gti now while they are doing great deals on a car that is late in its model life that should have had any issues resolved.

[cktsi]

As mentioned in my above post, i love the low end grunt of the 118tsi. Unfortunately i think i threw out the issue of wheels magazine that compared the 118tsi to the mazda 3 sp25. Does anyone still have that and could you let me know the 80-120 acceleration time?

I swear it is not far off the GTI but want to see the numbers to prove it.

[kaktusdigital]

Thanks for your insight cktsi, it's sad to hear your dealings with vw has not resolved anything so far. Right now I'm looking to wait out my warranty (expires oct 2013) then get it ecu flashed + guy's DSG flash. Considering that's nearly 3K all up I'm wondering if that's better spent going towards a new vehicle. Perhaps guy's DSG flash would help you in this circumstance, Ryan_R seems to have had a great result from it so there's a good chance it could work for you? That's what I'm hoping, I'm still getting the D1 (sometimes in D2) 'stuttering/stumbling" as if you're driving over a really even, but bumpy ground. Almost feels like semi depressed clutch grinding on teeth.

I'm stuck on 40-80 roads most of the time and don't even really know IF i'll see the benefit of a GTI to be honest. Someone here mentioned the get up and go of the 118 from standstill to 60kph is actually as fast if not faster than a GTI? Can someone shed some light on whether the handling of the Gti far exceeds the 118? that's probably something more relevant to my driving situation.

[cktsi]

Thanks for your insight cktsi, it's sad to hear your dealings with vw has not resolved anything so far. Right now I'm looking to wait out my warranty (expires oct 2013) then get it ecu flashed + guy's DSG flash. Considering that's nearly 3K all up I'm wondering if that's better spent going towards a new vehicle. Perhaps guy's DSG flash would help you in this circumstance, Ryan_R seems to have had a great result from it so there's a good chance it could work for you? That's what I'm hoping, I'm still getting the D1 (sometimes in D2) 'stuttering/stumbling" as if you're driving over a really even, but bumpy ground. Almost feels like semi depressed clutch grinding on teeth.

I'm stuck on 40-80 roads most of the time and don't even really know IF i'll see the benefit of a GTI to be honest. Someone here mentioned the get up and go of the 118 from standstill to 60kph is actually as fast if not faster than a GTI? Can someone shed some light on whether the handling of the Gti far exceeds the 118? that's probably something more relevant to my driving situation.

That grinding doesnt sound like the same shuddering issue. Your situation is a little different to mine as you have an MY11 car and had no real issues.

So it would be better to get the DSG tune to see if it resolves that other issue. If it does then happy days and you can get the apr engine upgrade.

As for the performance vs gti, i kept up with one on a rollong acceleration from 30-70. It didnt pull away. If you put on sports tyres, you will love your car's handling even more.

Having driven the Golf R and scirocco R on the track and played around with the low rpm responsiveness, the 118 is a better city car in the real world. For track days or open road the mid to high range rpm will leave the 118 for dead. The weak point of the 118 is definitely the lack of grunt in 3rd gear upwards in the mid to high rpms.

Btw shouldnt your car only be 1 yr and have 2 yrs left on the warranty?

Anyway, too late for me as i have put a deposit on a new car. Feels sad that i am counting down the last days of ownership. I love the blend of economy and performance.

I really thought this car was The One :-p

[anthony]

cktsi,what car are you getting now ???

[cktsi]

cktsi,what car are you getting now ???

Its kinda off topic as this is the 118 appreciation thread. Totally different car that is irrelevant to this thread. There is a whole discussion in the Golf 7 thread where i talk abt it in the poll thread

[kaktusdigital]

my thoughts exactly

cktsi,what car are you getting now ???

cktsi:
In your experience do you have any idea what the grinding is? the car was aug 2010 build, but classified as my11 when purchased from the dealer... or so they say. I just got a set of gtd rims with turanza tyres, not sure if that's considered 'sports' but they seem to feel better than those potenza. Perhaps it was just my old set were at the end of its lifespan. I think 1 more dealership service to see what can/needs to be replaced under warranty, then its off to the tuner workshop

[bmck]

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I'm torn on what to do.

2 years on, my MY11 118tsi is approaching 1 year left on warranty. Hasn't missed a beat so far except for small DSG niggles which the latest reflash has greatly improved. So my question is, how likely is it that my engine could give in after the warranty period? Would it be best to just take the financial loss and sell it now?

Am i just being paranoid? As I said, i haven't had any issues so far so it may well drive all the way into the 200K+ without a hitch. My initial thought is that after 2 years any potential engine problems would have probably arisen by now?

very wallet itchy right now considering the good deals on gti's atm

I faced the same quandary. My 2009 118 runs out of warranty at Christmas time. I love the engine/gearbox but was getting a twitchy feeling concerning life post-warranty.

Last week we went and sat in a Polo GTI to judge if the size would work for us. Long story short - dealer suggested a price that was not able to be ignored. We bought it. Same engine/gearbox (albeit 132kW) - another three years warranty - save on the upcoming Golf service and rego. (It's easy to justify these things financially if you use your imagination!)

If I can sell the Golf privately for a reasonable price, I won't be too much out of pocket.

We picked the car up on Monday. On the way home from the dealer, my wife was driving the Golf. Close to home, it failed to proceed. Tow truck. Dealer. Replaced mechatronics unit. Five weeks left on warranty. My decision justified!

If you can live with Polo size, I think it's a good option. Note there is bugger-all boot space. Vanilla Polos have a false floor revealing average boot space. Not so GTIs. Battery is under the floor. Also, you have to live with the stupid redundant Bluetooth dongle bolted to the dashboard like something just picked up from SuperCheap. Apart from that, we're loving it after week 1.

[cktsi]

my thoughts exactly

cktsi:
In your experience do you have any idea what the grinding is?

Nope. Shuddering issue didn't produce a grinding noise. Though to be sure, you would have to load up a sound file or video with audio for us to listen to in order to be sure.

I faced the same quandary. My 2009 118 runs out of warranty at Christmas time. I love the engine/gearbox but was getting a twitchy feeling concerning life post-warranty.

Last week we went and sat in a Polo GTI to judge if the size would work for us. Long story short - dealer suggested a price that was not able to be ignored. We bought it.

Wow!! Congrats on making the switch! Same awesome engine in a smaller lighter package. I hope that you have the benefit of improvements in the manufacturing process and the car treats you nicer than the Golf comfortline.

However, for people such as kaktusdigital, I would strongly recommend reading the Polo 6R forums as I've read about issues with the Polo GTI. Whilst I think it's a good car on paper, I would caution you to use the forum to make an informed decision. It's better to know what you're potentially getting into.

There is a thread on it with good feedback from current owners. I hope bmck never has to post on that thread.

I noticed my neighbour's white 4 month old polo GTI went missing for a week and in it's place was a Jetta loaner. The white GTI re-appeared this week.

No car is perfect, so if your dealer has your back then it may be worth considering this switch.

[kaktusdigital]

While there's probably no problem with the polo gti, the 118+7dsg combo is interesting to say the least.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this, i've kind of narrowed the identification of this 'grinding' like noise. Picture a fairly bumper to bumper situation. It usually happens on an incline , you press the accelerator to gain a little momentum and figure you'll roll about to stop short of the stationary car in front of you. Instead the car in front moves away as the traffic starts to clear. You press the accelerator to catch up - and there it happens, about 2 seconds worth of vibrations and a kind of grinding noise as D1 moves to D2.